App helps inspire fitness
Initiative aims to improve health
SETTING out with a goal to get people fit, active and changing their lives for the better, East London fitness enthusiast Manelisi Bozo launched his virtual running club “Run 1000km with Bozo” (R1000WB) on Tuesday.
The club, which runs under the popular Nike running app NRC, requires members to run 100km a month until the end of November 2017 making for a total of 1 000km.
The application measures the distance, pace and GPS routes of the runners, who each month use a hashtag that is provided upon downloading the application.
Bozo said the club was inspired by the “Run with Kevin Hart 5KM on Sundays” initiative.
The only difference is that his club is more competitive and longterm based.
He said he had initially started with just a 100km run challenge (Feb100) for the month of February but due to the high level of interest and participation he decided to extend it to the whole year.
He said Feb100 had more than 100 participants.
Bozo said users could run wherever they were as long as they used the required hashtags.
“The person who really suggested I launch this challenge is Aluta Maqoko, a friend of mine who has been participating on most of my previous challenges,” he said.
Maqoko, who is from Fourways in Johannesburg, said she was looking forward to R1000kWB.
She has completed the 100km challenge and said because the app had a leaderboard, members could monitor who was also running and how far they were running.
“Feb100 was a bit challenging but I got used to it in the second week.
“Looking at the leaderboard also encouraged me to run every day.
“One would go to bed in the number 1 spot and wake up the following day at the bottom of the list,” she said.
Another participant, Nunu Mhlahlo from Port Elizabeth, said the club had pushed her to complete the challenge in a fun but competitive way.
“I absolutely loved Feb100 and I am glad we get to continue the challenge for the rest of the year.
“It’s fun and healthy competition,” she said.
Since the club’s launch on Tuesday, Bozo said he had received positive feedback from potential participants, with hundreds of people committing to the challenge.
To join the club, download the Nike running app (available for Apple and Android devices), register a new account and run with their device attached to an arm or a hand.
After completing the run, share on the Nike feed using the relevant hashtags.